Shopping Stuffs - Week of July 7

Highway robbery, that's what it is!

Staples - If you checked your deals at Staples this week, you probably smiled as I did. $2.61 bought me:

• 12 mechanical pencils (yes, yes, I know that pencils you sharpen are cheaper but, frankly, I despise them and for $1.99 or $0.17 a piece, these make me much happier!)
• 2 mini bottles of Purrell - $0.02 total
• 10 paper file folders - $0.10 total
• 1 pack of loose-leaf college ruled paper (not the annoying cardboardie recycled kind that has holes riped into it the second you try to write on it) - $0.50

Walgreens - $11.71 total - 4.71 out of pocket (I had $7.00 of register rewards from last week's purchases)

• 4 boxes of 12 assorted cards each (birthday, general, etc) - $0.99 each or $0.08 per card! Minor difference between $2+ dollars for a single card bought otherwise. Don't get me wrong, cards can be fun. But I really do balk at spending that much money on a piece of cardboard that is probably going to be tossed within a couple of days. If it's the sentiments you want to express, they can be written on a much less expensive piece of paper. Granted, sometimes there is a card out there that is absolutely perfect for the occasion, but for the most part, I've spent way too long pouring over racks of cards to settle on a half-way decent one that I only sort of like.

OK, off my soapbox!

• 6 bubble-wrap envelopes at 3/$1.
• 6 packs of 24 pieces of white tissues paper - 3/$1
• 2 boxes of Ziplock brand plastic bags - $1.50 apiece. This was supposed to be about $1.00 cheaper, but my own miscalculation tacked on the extra amount.

CVS - $25.39 total (there's a mistake in part of that - should be about $6.00 cheaper); used $10.50 in ECBs and spent $14.89 out of pocket - got $11.98 back in ECBS for future trips

• Pringles - 2 for $2 with a $1.00 ECB back
• CVS Pantiliners - 2 for $0.99 each ($1.98 total) with $1.98 in ECBs back
• 1 box of Playtext tampons $4.99 - $1.00 coupon and I got $3.00 of ECBS back
• Dawn dishwashing liquid - 2 for $2 with a $1.00 ECB back
• 4 bottles of Fabreeze - $12.98 total - 2 B1G1 coupons - $6.40 total with $5.00 ECBs back
• And the mistake (store's mistake, not mine!). They were advertising 2 bottles of Pert shampoo for $5.00. I had 2 $2.00 coupons off one bottle, so my total should have been $1.00 or $0.50 each. However, in checking my receipt later (I go over my lunch hour so have limited time and have to check this after the fact), I discovered that they had charged me $5.69 EACH. Thus the unexpected $6.38 addition to the bill.

One way of looking at the whole thing (not counting the opps) is through using my ECBs to pay and then ones I earned for next trip, I technically got paid $3.00 for shopping there today!

There were also several other deals that I wanted which I had to get a raincheck for:

• $7.99 mascara with a $7.99 ECB back
• $4.99 hairbrush with $5.00 ECB back
• 2 deoderants at $2.79 each - 2 $1 off 1 coupon. Get $3.00 ECBs back for a grand total of $0.68 cents. Plus, there's a B1G1 free rebate that I can send in for on one of the deoderants!
• CVS tampons at $1.49 with a $1.49 ECB back

Ah the joys of working the system! As I've been looking over our supplies, I'm finding we're needing fewer and fewer things which means I'm getting pickier and pickier on what I buy. And that's the kind of picky I want to be!